Hamas has announced that it has completed preparations to release its remaining living hostages, with the exchange expected to take place early Monday, just hours before US President Donald Trump hosts a major peace summit in Egypt.
The move represents a crucial phase in Trump’s Gaza peace plan, which aims to end the two-year conflict and restore stability in the region.
According to the US-brokered proposal, once the Palestinian group releases the hostages, Israel is expected to free approximately 2,000 Palestinian detainees in return. However, final negotiations were still underway on Sunday, as two senior Hamas sources revealed that the group was insisting Israel include seven prominent Palestinian political figures among those to be freed.
Shosh Bedrosian, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed that the “hostage release will begin early Monday morning,” and that Israel expects “all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time.”
President Trump is scheduled to arrive in Israel shortly after the handover and will address the Israeli parliament before proceeding to Egypt, where he and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-chair a summit of over 20 world leaders to rally international support for the peace initiative.
Bedrosian explained that “Palestinian prisoners will be released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel.” In previous truces, the verification of deceased hostages was only confirmed after autopsies conducted at Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.
Two Hamas sources, speaking anonymously to AFP, reiterated the group’s demand that Israel release seven key figures, including Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Ibrahim Hamed, and Abbas Al-Sayyed. Despite Israel’s past refusals, the sources confirmed that Hamas and its allies had “completed all preparations” for the exchange of the living hostages held in Gaza.
As outlined in the plan, Hamas will release the remaining 47 hostages, both living and deceased, abducted during its October 7, 2023 assault, which left 1,219 people dead, most of them civilians, and ignited Israel’s devastating Gaza campaign. The group will also hand over the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war.
Among the roughly 2,000 Palestinian detainees slated for release, about 250 are security prisoners convicted of deadly attacks, while nearly 1,700 were detained in Gaza during the ongoing conflict.
After his visit to Israel, Trump will join Sisi in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the summit, which will also be attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron. The Egyptian presidency said the gathering aims “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security.”
Neither Israeli nor Hamas representatives will participate in the summit, according to officials from both sides. Meanwhile, the temporary truce allowed limited humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, though chaos erupted in Khan Yunis as starving civilians ransacked trucks, trampling food parcels in desperate attempts to secure supplies.
For residents like Mahmud al-Muzain, the disorder reflected widespread skepticism about lasting peace. “Everyone fears the war will return,” he told AFP. “We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back.”
Displaced residents have also begun returning to what remains of their homes. “My eyes kept searching for landmarks I had lost—nothing looked the same, even the neighbours’ houses were gone,” said 38-year-old Fatima Salem. “I missed the smell of my home, even if it’s now just rubble. We will pitch a tent next to it and wait for reconstruction.”
Despite recent progress, mediators face the daunting task of negotiating a lasting political arrangement that ensures stability and disarmament. A Hamas official involved in the talks stated that while the group would not take part in governing post-war Gaza, it would not agree to surrender its weapons. “Hamas agrees to a long-term truce and for its weapons not to be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza,” the source said.
Under Trump’s plan, Israel is expected to gradually withdraw from parts of Gaza, which will then be overseen by a multinational peacekeeping force coordinated by a US-led command centre based in Israel.
The conflict has taken a heavy toll: according to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 67,806 people have been killed since the war began, with more than half identified as women and children. The United Nations has described these figures as credible, though they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
What you should know
Hamas has finalized plans to release 20 living hostages under a US-brokered exchange deal tied to Trump’s Gaza peace plan. In return, Israel will release about 2,000 Palestinian detainees.
The exchange precedes Trump’s Egypt summit, aimed at achieving a lasting truce and restoring regional stability.
